Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Dano started in theater —— which will come as no surprise to anyone who sees them in their latest films, playing characters with carefully crafted backstories. In Lila Neugebauer’s “Causeway,” Henry portrays James, a New Orleans mechanic and amputee who bonds with Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence), an injured soldier desperate to return to combat. And Dano has
After years of development and production, James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel has reached judgment day. Disney and 20th Century Studios’ “The Way of Water” took flight at the box office with a solid $53 million gross from 4,202 locations in its opening day, a figure that includes $17 million in Thursday previews. That ranks as the
Elon Musk taketh away, and Elon Musk giveth. Late Friday night, the mercurial mega-billionaire unilaterally announced that he was unbanning journalists whose accounts had been suspended a day before — which Musk claimed had “doxxed” him by posting links to an account that tracks his private jet. Until this week, the CEO of Twitter, Tesla
It has been three months since protests broke out in Iran against the country’s Islamic regime. This resistance movement was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the government’s morality police. While the movement is credited as women-led, men have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their Iranian sisters in this resistance, at the
The spat between Buckingham Palace and the producers behind Netflix’s “Harry & Meghan” docuseries has intensified after it emerged that palace officials not only had an opportunity to comment on the Sussexes’ claims within the show, but tried to obtain footage in advance. The war of words erupted last Thursday, shortly after “Harry & Meghan”
Writer, director, and producer Nicole Mejia has signed with A3 Artists Agency for representation. Mejia’s directorial debut feature “A Place in the Field” was acquired for theatrical distribution by Lionsgate and Grindstone and is slated to arrive in 2023. The drama tells the story of Army Veteran, Gio Scuderi, who struggles to cope after the
YouTube removed the official channel of Pornhub, the sex site’s promotional outlet for videos, coming eight years after Pornhub launched its account. Prior to its removal Friday, the Pornhub Official channel had amassed nearly 900,000 subscribers. It was first launched in December 2014. The channel’s URL now displays a 404 (“not found”) error on the
No more PowerPoint presentations for Oscar nominations – the big screens with pictures of the actors, directors and movies are back to celebrate the best of 2022. The Academy announced that it will return to an in-person live event from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Jan. 24. While the ungodly early hour between
The Creative Coalition announced the launch of the Diversity Gap Initiative, a fund that will provide $10,000 grants for entry-level entertainment industry new hires who come from low-income backgrounds without connections to help them meet their basic needs such as housing, transportation and food. Writer and director Gloria Calderón Kellett serves as the chair of
The 13-year wait is finally over. James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” is now playing in theaters, and with it comes a question moviegoers will probably be asking themselves once the credits roll: What does the cast actually look like? In the original “Avatar,” actors such as Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle
Kate Hudson has opened up about her insistence on casting Matthew McConaughey in “How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days.” The actor reflected on her life and career during a Life In Pictures talk at BAFTA in London on Friday. Hudson, who acknowledged her strength in rom-coms during the 2000s, revealed that she and
After Kelsey Harris, a key witness in the trial of Tory Lanez, claimed on the stand Thursday that she either didn’t see or couldn’t recall the circumstances of the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, prosecutors on Friday played the entirety of an 80-minute taped interview she did three months ago — in which Harris was
HBO’s comedy pilot about the making of a franchise superhero movie has set its main cast, Variety has learned. Billy Magnussen, Jessica Hynes, Darren Goldstein, Lolly Adefope, and Isaac Powell have been cast as series regulars, while Daniel Brühl and Richard E. Grant have been cast in recurring guest star roles in the pilot, which
Mary J. Blige has entered into an agreement with BET to create unscripted and scripted content through her company, Blue Butterfly Productions. The network will have first looks at Blige’s unscripted works and second looks at scripted projects as part of the deal. The first project being developed under the pact is “The Wine Down.”
Tony Hale will appear in Anna Kendrick’s feature directorial debut, “The Dating Game.” Details of the “Veep” alum’s character remain under wraps. He joins previously announced cast members Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakle and Autumn Best. While character descriptions for most of the cast have been kept quiet, Variety has learned
Guillermo del Toro echoed the words of Hayao Miyazaki when recently asked by Decider about animation created from artificial intelligence sources and machines: “It’s an insult to life itself.” Del Toro has been making the press rounds in support of his Netflix film “Pinocchio,” a hand-crafted stop-motion movie that stands in direct opposition to machine-generated
The best things in life are worth waiting for. That seems to be the sentiment surrounding Jorge Drexler and “Tinta y Tiempo” (“Ink and Time”), the physician-turned-musician’s 14th studio album that “almost didn’t happen,” he tells Variety. The album swept at the Latin Grammys this year, with the Uruguayan singer-songwriter taking home six trophies, in
Donald Glover is set to join Sony Pictures’ universe of Marvel characters, as the star and producer of a movie based on the Spider-Man villain the Hypno-Hustler. The project is in its earliest stages, with no script or director, but Myles Murphy (the son of Eddie Murphy) is attached to write the screenplay. The Hypno-Hustler,
Any fan of James Cameron’s “Titanic” has surely debated many times whether or not Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) had to die. Many viewers claim there was enough room for both Jack and Rose (Kate Winslet) on the floating door turned makeshift raft, but Cameron himself is here to prove everyone wrong. Speaking to The Toronto Sun
The comedy series “Blockbuster” has been canceled after just one season at Netflix. The 10-episode series launched its one and only season on November 3. The show was a single-camera workplace comedy about the employees of the last Blockbuster Video in the world. The series starred Randall Park, Melissa Fumero, Olga Merediz, Tyler Alvarez, Madeleine
Meghan and Harry’s long-awaited docuseries, “Harry & Meghan,” threw plenty of punches – mostly aimed at the Royal Family with the British media (specifically sister papers the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday) next in the firing line. So far, the royals have not responded publicly, declining to release any kind of official statement. But
The “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923” at Paramount+ has cast Joseph Mawle, Variety has learned exclusively. Mawle joins a stacked cast that includes Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Robert Patrick, Jennifer Ehle, Jerome Flynn, James Badge Dale, Sebastian Roché, Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, Marley Shelton, Brian Geraghty, and Aminah Nieves. Like “1883” before it, “1923” tells the
The Museum of the Moving Image and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced 2022 award recipients from the Sloan Film Program on Friday. A pilot script titled “Until Then We Keep Breathing” by UCLA student Samantha Sewell and a feature script called “Woodside” by Florida State University student Gerard Shaka were among the projects recognized.
“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” director Joel Crawford hopes audiences can “feel the imprint of anime” in his latest animated feature. Speaking with Variety, Crawford said the animation team leaned heavily into the hand-drawn style for the beloved cat’s return. Set after the events of 2010’s “Shrek Forever After,” the film follows Puss as
As we catch up with Brandi Carlile in a phone call, she is able to talk at some leisure because she’s traveling by train, headed from Washington, D.C., where the night before she sang in honor of U2 and Amy Grant at the Kennedy Center Honors, to New York City, where she’s just about to
Taylor Sheridan, the creator of “Yellowstone” and tireless workhorse of Paramount+, has already proven himself a prolific writer with a fully articulated vision of the stories he wants to tell. He’s built an impressive slate of dramas populated with cowboys, cobras and compromised cops, including three “Yellowstone” spin-offs. Sheridan could probably continue with his aggressive
It’s a big week for Dame Helen Mirren. Not only is “1923,” her upcoming Paramount+ series debuting on Sunday, but she is also the narrator in the “Barbie” trailer that just dropped and plays the therapist in Kendrick Lamar’s “Count Me Out” video — two things she can’t help but laugh at during our interview.
Lara Croft is swinging back into action — this time with Amazon. Amazon Games and game studio Crystal Dynamics, developer of the long-running “Tomb Raider” franchise, announced an agreement under which Crystal Dynamics will develop a new multiplatform title in the series, with Amazon Games “providing full support and publishing the game globally.” For now,
Considering the dispiritingly youth-obsessed leanings of Hollywood, 2022 has been an encouragingly banner year for older actors in muscular roles. The array of brawny films led by strong quinquagenarians included Tom Gormican’s “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” with the 58-year-old Nicolas Cage playing a fictionalized version of himself across high-wire action sequences, generously paying
It’s almost a new year, which means it’s time to get rid of all the baggage of 2022 and enter 2023 with, well, fresh baggage—handbags, that is. You can’t always get a new start emotionally, but at least you can have a fun new accessory to help you fulfill your resolutions (I stand by cute